Chapter 218 Taking Everyone“s Breath Away
Jack's party was reveling in Jack's victory. It only proved that one of Jack's weaknesses really was little Lina.
Argyle chuckled as he pitied the Fulken king. He didn't think Jack would suddenly buy a lv. 50 hairclip on the whim of a young girl, let alone pay such a price for it. It made Argyle wonder just how rich Jack was.
While the hair clip was useless at the moment, Jack was glad that he was able to get something for Lina. He didn't want her to feel left out. And once she reached lv. 50, it would be a great item for her.
It helped with mana regeneration, and it worked quite well since it was a peak-tier lv. 50 item.
Lina went around the room, showing off her new hairclip to everyone.
Jack was starting to pay more attention to the auction again, in particular, to who won what items. Now that there weren't just holy items for sale, there was more variety to the types of energy in the items.
Based on the items purchased and with some help from Argyle, Jack was able to guess what nobles or royals might be in each room. Obviously, he could figure out all of them, but every now and then it was obvious.
He discovered that King Wilheim was also there on the third floor after the king bought a water type item and Jack recognized his voice.
Also, Jack found the Maltor king in the room beside King Wilheim's. It was again the voice and the fire type item that gave him away.
Though he knew it was impossible, Jack wanted to figure out who all of the people were, or at least as many as he could. It might come in handy if they get something to valuable or threatening, depending on who it was.
After the peak-tier lv. 50 items were all sold, the next item or items were rolled out.
The announcer introduced the items, "Next, we're selling a few bulk batches of greater healing potions. Each batch contains one hundred potions, and the bidding will start at forty thousand gold."
"Forty--"
"Forty-one thousand gold!" shouted Jack, curious what might happen next.
At first, there was no response. Everyone was pretty clear on what kind of bidder Jack was, so few people dared bid against him, especially when it was an item like this. There were multiple batches up for grabs, so they reasoned it wasn't worth going all out to get the first one.
"Forty-one thousand gold going once! Going twice--"
"Fifty thousand gold!"
Everyone smiled when they heard that voice. Yet again, the Fulken king challenged Jack.
With a smile, Jack shook his head. "Fifty-five thousand gold!"
"Sixty thousand gold!" yelled the king.
"Sixty-one thousand gold!"
"Sixty-five thousand gold!"
"Sixty-six thousand gold!" stated Jack, taking a different approach to his usual jumps in price.
The Fulken king growled and eyed Jack's room. "Seventy-five thousand gold!"
"Seventy-six thousand gold!"
Smiling, the Fulken king was glad that Jack instantly raised his bid. The highest most people would willingly spend on such potions were seventy thousand gold. As a test, the king went straight to seventy-five thousand gold and Jack supposedly fell for the trick. His guess was that Jack didn't fully understand the prices, but that Jack would simply pay more than everyone else.
"Eighty thousand gold!"
"Eighty-one thousand gold!"
It happened again and the king's smile got colder. He determined that one last time should be enough to make up for the humiliation he felt before. "Eighty-five thousand!"
"..."
"Eighty-five thousand going once! Going twice… Sold!"
"Gong!"
The king's smile was quickly replaced by a frown. He glared intensely at Jack's room, only now realizing that Jack wasn't as foolish as he had guessed.
"Since you were so intent to have it, I decided to give it to you as an apology for taking your items earlier. Please, I hope you can forgive me now."
That statement was a poison dagger piercing the king's pride. There was no coming back now, not after Jack had bluntly mocked him in front of all the kings present.
It was a great thing that only Jack could be heard from his room, otherwise, the entire auction hall would be overrun with his party's laughter. Eliza found it particularly hilarious since she understood auctions very well.
With a pitiful laugh, Argyle stared at the Fulken king's room. He understood that there was no hope of him reconciling with Jack.
Of course, that would be if they knew Jack's identity.
Since no one knew who he was, Jack allowed himself to act a bit more like Jack J., the greedy, selfish man who sacrificed hundred-man raids just to get an achievement.
In fact, that was exactly what Jack was doing.
So far, Jack had already completed two achievements and was trying to get a couple more. Thanks to the Fulken king, Jack got the [Instictive buyer] and [New top dog] achievements from buying on a whim and publicly humiliating a king.
Curious if there were any other achievements he could get in the auction, Jack wanted to try something. It took a few minutes, but Jack quickly made a search function that covered his entire system in one search.
He searched "auction" and found a few results. Reading over them, Jack came up with a few ideas to try and gain some special or unique rewards.
When the next batch came up on stage, before the woman could announce the starting bid, Jack shouted, "Thirty-nine thousand gold!"
Confused at what to do, she looked at the managers in the crowd. But when she thought they would want to correct her, they all shrugged and acted like it didn't matter.
So, she started counting, "Thirty-nine thousand going one! Going twice… Sold!"
"Gong!"
As the deal was made official since no one dared challenge Jack after what happened to the Fulken king, an alert flashed across Jack's screen.
[Cutting the price: completed]
[Pay less than the base price of an auction item during an annual international auction and successfully win the bid. Special reward: 75 skill points.]
Happy with his success, Jack gladly made the exchange and revisited his auction-related achievements. Having already earned one hundred and twenty skill points from the auction alone, Jack was determined to milk the auction for as many skill points as possible. It was rare to have so many royals in one place to make such an international level event possible, so Jack wanted to sprint with this opportunity while he had it.
While smiling uncontrollably, Jack divvied up his hundred potions among the party. Everyone got eight or nine potions in the end and they were all anxious to see what Jack would buy next.
More bulk potions were sold, but Jack didn't bother bidding on them. His party had plenty for their current level's needs.
After ten bulk potion orders were sold, another bulk order was rolled out on the trolly. "These are greater elixirs, and like the greater potions they will be sold in bulk orders of one hundred. The starting price is fifty thousand gold."
"One hundred thousand gold!"
"..."
No one said a word or even took a breath after Jack made the first bid. All eyes gradually turned to Jack in silence, including those inside his private room.
Only one person made noise, letting everyone glance at the Fulken king's room. They could imagine how furious the Fulken king was. Jack had backed out of a price that was already too expensive for most people to imagine, yet here he was starting a bid at an even more ridiculous price.
"..." The auctioneer hesitated, needing the help of the managers to come to and start a countdown. "Going once… Going twice…"
"One hundred and fifty thousand gold!"
"..."
Again, everyone was totally baffled and dumbstruck. Jack had just bid up his already ridiculous price by fifty thousand gold… They were questioning how real everything actually was.
The beautiful auctioneer struggled to do her job while so confused. She stammered, "...Y-you do know that you don't have to--"
"One hundred and seventy-five thousand gold!" Jack shouted again and cut her off. "If I want to raise my bid, then that's what I'll do!"
"O-okay! One… hundred and seventy-five thousand… Going once… Going twice… Sold."
"... Gong…"
Even the guy in charge of the gong was too caught up in the moment to do his one job correctly.
While everyone was totally out of the loop to Jack's logic and they questioned his sanity, Jack was trying not to laugh hysterically.
He had his system open, reading through his two newest achievements.
[Your own worst enemy: completed]
[Make things harder for yourself and bid yourself up at the annual international auction. Special reward: 50 skill points.]
[Moneybags!: completed]
[Pay WAY too much for an auction item. Unique reward: 150 skill points.]
No one else could understand why, but Jack stood taller and prouder after making such an outrageous purchase.